The Boron Letters
Page 9
Also, I’d like to add that the proper time to let people know you are pitching is after you have started seriously fueling their desire.
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The Boron Letters
Chapter 15
Tuesday, 9:09 AM
June 26, 1984
Dear Bond,
Happy Birthday!
You know son, you are the joy of my life. I hope you pass your driver’s test today. But, if you don’t, it’s ok, just keep working on it till you do.
Yesterday, as you remember, we left off after discussing the baggie and today, I think I need to begin to teach you the particulars of how to write copy.
As you will note, we haven’t talked about writing copy as of yet. What we have talked about mainly is the “conceptualization” of our marketing effort. However, now that we have conceptualized our piles, let’s get a little more technical about the whole process of writing copy.
Here’s how to begin: The first thing you need to do is to assemble a file that contains everything you can get your hands on that is relevant to your promotion. Here are some of the things that might be included in your file:
1) List cards describing the lists you are going to test
2) A copy of the report you intend to sell
3) Copies of DM pieces that other people have used to sell products or services related to what you want to sell.
4) Copies of space ads that other people have used to sell products or services related to what you want to sell.
5) Copies of books and reports on real estate investing.
6) Copies of exceptionally good ads and DM pieces, even if they are not related to real estate.
7) A copy of that book I’m going to give you that contains hundreds of headlines.
8) Anything else you can think of that might be an “idea generator”.
OK now, after you have assembled all this stuff, what you need to do is start reading and taking notes.
Now, here is a little quirk of mine: I have a special way of taking these notes which, incidentally, I call “nugget notes.”
You see, what I do is take my notes in the form of little nuggets of information. When I am done the paper I have been writing on looks like this:
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Remember this when you are taking these notes don’t stuff yourself.
Sometimes, my nugget notes consist of just one word. Sometimes they consist of meaningless phrases. Many times my notes make sense but many times they don’t. No matter. I never worry about it. I just keep writing. I write what occurs to me as I read the list cards, the jackets of books, the ads, the DM pieces, and all the rest of the material I have assembled.
Now here are a few things you should always include. A complete description of your product including how many pages, how many words, how many photos, who wrote it, facts about the author (his age, background, success stories, etc.). You should also take notes on what this product will do for you. Will it make you wealthy? How will more money help your customer? Will he be able to buy a better car? Take more vacations? Afford a better home? If so, put it down.
OK now, after you have taken all these notes
STOP
9:47
START AGAIN
9:54
what I want you to do is re-read the notes and the really good ones, put a star * beside them. And the ones that are even better put two stars ** next to them. And then, the red hot ones you put three *** or more stars beside them.
Now, at this point, what you need to do is stop working on this project. That’s right. Just let it go. Put it right out of your mind. Just go on about your other business for a day or two.
Now then, often what happens during this time, is that an outstanding sales idea will occur to you. Sometimes this idea will be how to get attention like with my baggie idea.
STOP
9:47
[Bond, I got interrupted here. Two prison guards came over and searched me and B. and told us to stay out of the little park where we take our breaks. Apparently, some little kid was caught smoking pot here yesterday.]
START AGAIN
9:54
Ah well, that’s life in the big city.
So let’s get started again. As I was saying, sometimes your breakthrough idea or “aha experience” will be a way to get attention like my baggie idea, or a new way to help the prospect visualize the benefits of owning what you have to sell, or a new order generating sales point or whatever. Anyway, at this point you now need to begin writing your letter according to formula.
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10:39
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10:51
By formula, I mean you should work within a proven sequential outline like AIDA.
What does AIDA stand for? It stands for ATTENTION, INTEREST, DESIRE, ACTION. So, to make it clearer your letter should:
1. First, get his attention
2. Second, get him interested
3. Third, make him desire what you are selling
4. Compel him to take whatever action is needed to get whatever it is you are selling.
Tomorrow, we’ll go over this in more detail. But for today, once again I want to wish you HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
I Love You And
Good Luck!
Dad
Whoops, I forgot to mark down the time but we’ll make it 10:59
UPDATE:
This was by far the most pivotal birthday and changed my life forever in ways both good and bad but… this isn’t about me.
I do however want to say that these Boron Letters were the single best gift anyone ever given me but I must confess…
I didn’t know it at the time.
You see, my father mentions the time I told him I felt lucky to see how he makes money. Well, this took place when I was about 9 and from then on I was his protégé.
So I had been receiving these lessons by word of mouth for years but having them written is so much better because…
I can go over them often as many people do once a year.
They also serve as proof of an extraordinary childhood.
It’s not easy to convince people you spent 20 years studying marketing when you are only 30 years old.
In fact I began lying and down playing previous experience just to make the truth sound more believable.
Okay, enough about me.
Keeping your whole project in a box really helps and my father kept a red wooden fodder box which sits next to my desk now and is among my favorite possessions.
Wait, I said enough about me. Sorry, won’t happen again.
Now I want to add a few things about nugget notes. Keep a pen and paper with you at all times.
Brainstorms come at the times when your brain is well nourished and the most relaxed which means the ideas come when you least expect them.
Some copywriters write on the computer and others like my brother are still inkers who use a pen and paper but ALL great copywriters write their nugget notes, bullets and headlines by hand.
You will lose ideas trying to remember how to record a note on your phone and one idea quickly rolls into another so keep a pen and paper nearby at all times.
Also, rank everything in terms of what the buyer cares about. Unless your charity work is more proof of your expertise it gets the lowest rank.
<
br /> Remember, the copy is only about you in so much as it proves how you can help the prospect solve their problems.
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The Boron Letters
Chapter 16
Wednesday, 9:09 AM
June 27, 1984
Dear Bond,
AIDA. As I said yesterday, it stands for attention, interest, desire, and action.
Now, let’s talk about each of these four formula elements and how we will use them in our sales letter.
Attention comes first. Naturally, we must get our readers attention before he can become interested in and desirous of our offer. Getting attention is CRUCIAL. If you don’t get it, your letter or advertisement will never be read. That’s why I like to attach things to the top of my DM letters. I have attached coins, dollar bills, 2-dollar bills, Japanese “pennies”, Mexican pesos etc. and there gimmicks has always gotten a lot of attention.
However, as I told you before, you must get the right kind of attention. If not, your reader will be insulted and angry and probably won’t become a customer. So, always remember that your attention grabber needs to be relevant. It needs to tie in naturally with your letter.
Now, as we have discussed, we have decided to attach a plastic baggie filled with sand to the letter we are going to use to sell our report on real estate investing.
There’s no doubt that this technique will get our reader’s attention. It will really make him sit up and take notice. It will be the right kind of attention too. Because it is relevant. It has a natural tie in with the story our letter has to tell. Actually, we have, as you will recall, more or less written this part of the letter in an earlier lesson.
OK now, we have got attention and our first few paragraphs have made a natural tie in with our “attention grabber.” So, what’s next? Well, referring right back to our AIDA formula we see that the next thing we need to do (after getting his attention) is catch his interest.
How do we do this? Well, let’s start by feeding him interesting facts. Like how much money there is to be made by investing in Maui real estate. By telling how much sand (cubic tons) is on the beach where we got the sand in that baggie. By telling how this is one of the best beach front investment opportunities in Maui. By telling how many pretty girls there are around. By telling the specific kinds of fish you can catch right off the beach etc.
OK, now after we have told him a lot of interesting facts our AIDA formula now tells us we should now arouse his desire.
Here’s how we do that.
STOP
9:43
START AGAIN
10:30
Well, Bondo Dog, things get curiouser and curiouser. I just got fired from my job. I’ll tell you the story when you visit; there’s really not much to say and it’s kind of boring so let’s get back to our letter.
So, meanwhile back at the ranch I believe we were talking about how to create desire and, as I was saying, here’s how we do that: What we do to create desire is we describe the benefits our prospect gets if he buys our product or service. Now, in the case of an investment orientated offer what we have to offer is the prospect of making money. At least this is our main attraction. So, what's let's do is let’s help him to picture in his mind the benefits of having more money. Don’t think it’s not necessary. Remember, you must always do even the obvious. Here then, are some benefits of having more money:
New car - impress your friends and family, ride in comfort and luxury
Nice house - comfort, luxury, and status
Peace of mind - no worries about bills or financial emergencies
Vacations - money lets you travel the world, go where you want when you want
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10:47
Attract the opposite sex - money, as any fool knows, makes you much more attractive to the opposite sex - it gives you more opportunities to meet them in nice places also
Leisure time - money buys time: perhaps the best reason of all for having fun goes
Alright kiddo, we’ve got his attention, we’ve got him interested, created desire and now what’s left? Go back to our AIDA formula and you will see that that last “A” stands for action. And that’s just what we’ve got to get, action! Action in the form of him sending us an order.
You should pay very close attention to how I get action in my MD and DM pitches. I do this better than anybody. I am very thorough when it comes to closing a sale. Here’s a little of example of how I do it. “Would you like to get in on this great investment opportunity? Would you like to be one of the privileged few who actually own a piece of the finest beach in Maui? If so, it’s easy to order. All you have to do is fill out the order coupon and send it to me with your payment, etc., etc.”
One thing I want to stress is that you must be very clear, very specific about what you want him to do. Lead him by the hand and take him exactly where you want him to go. Tell him where the order coupon is. Tell him to fill it out. Tell him to enclose the payment. Tell him how much to send. Tell him who the checks and money orders should be made out to. Tell him to use the envelope. Tell him the envelope doesn't need a stamp. (If it doesn’t.) Tell him to put the envelope in the mail.
And, above all, tell him to do all this RIGHT NOW! TODAY!
Tell him what he will get if he hurries and tell him what he will lose if he delays.
STOP
11:01
START AGAIN
11:02
Seriously, Bond, you should read my ads and DM pieces and pay particular attention to how I close the sales. Sometimes I devote as 25% or more of the entire ad to closing.
This, of course, has been just a few “starter ideas” on how to create a DM promotion. As I keep saying, I’m just warming up and will get more detailed later.
In the next couple days or so, I intend to send you Eric’s sales letter and I want you to read it and then see if you can see how everything I taught you in the last few days would make his letter more effective.
But, in the meantime, I have an assignment for you. Here’s what I want you to do: what I want you to do is get a copy of the facelift ad and then sit down and copy it in your own handwriting. I want you to write it out just the way you would if you were going to take it to a secretarial service to have it typed. By the way, check with B on this and he’ll tell you what format your hand written copy should be in.
And guess what? After you have completed this assignment I will explain why I am having you do this and how it will help you.
I LOVE YOU AND
GOOD LUCK!
Dad
STOP 11:11
P.S. I heard you got your driver’s license! I’m very proud of you!
UPDATE:
Another simple way to get a reader interested is to tell their story by telling your story with the problem your solution solves.
The key is to switch to talking about them as soon as things get better in the story.
For example, you could write:
My teenage kids were acting out and it felt like there wasn’t enough time in the day to be a good parent and then I discovered a 40 page book which changed everything.
This book shows you how to benefit, benefit, benefit.
This is a great way to segway right into a list of bullets. Of course more nuanced copy will describe a better life and subtly borrow clout etc. but you get the idea.
On a funny note, my father’s job was to rake the visitor’s area and he got paid 11 cents an hour.
What’s funny about it is….as soon as he made all the parallel lines in the sand and rocks…..he would sit down and write copy which made him rich.
I also want to add to what he says about desire because he was kind of short with it.
As part of your nugget notes, describe the benefits emotionally.
You may swap “you will be able to choose what to do with your day” with “you will have the freedom to choose what to do wit
h your day.”
Describe all the benefits financially. How many hours would it take customers to learn this on your own?
How much would they spend on other books to get the same knowledge?
When you write bullets…the basic pattern should be specific/blind fact, benefit.
Only 20 Minutes leaving the rest of the day free to do anything
Why The 4 Way Gurantee Crushes The Competition
A Four Line Note Which Cuts Refunds In Half!
You will also find your second choice headlines make good bullet and there are no hard and fast rules, not even the rules of English apply.
There is no need to struggle making these full sentences and abbreviate whenever possible.
I could go on and on…. but we need to keep on track.
Let’s talk about action phase and making it easy for the customer to order.
Nowadays it’s easier than ever to order things but you still want to do everything you can to make the process as smooth as humanly possible.